Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-12-09
PREHISTORIC AMERICA.
A's Legends, Monuments, and Languages
Vast Antiquity OF the American Race

PREHISTORIC AMERICA.
A's legends, Monuments, and Languages
vast Antiquity OF the American Race,
=, Abstract of an address before the
oectlon OF Anthropology Of the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement of
Science at New York, by DIR. Daniel
U. Brinton, Vice President and Chair
man of the section: The prehistoric
period of America dates back from the
discovery OF the several parts of the
continent; and the problem is to recon-
struct the history Of the various nations
who inhabit both Americas in this
period. A review of the means at our
command to accomplish this divides
them into six classes:
l. Legendary. includes the le-
gends or traditions of the native tribes.
Ihese often bear a strong resemblance
TO Semitic OR other Oriental myths, but
the similarity is a coincidence only.
and those writer's are led astrav who
count it for more. The annals Of the
Mexicans, the Mayas, of Yucatan, and
Quichuas, of Peru, carry us scarcely
hive hundred years before the voyage Of
Columbus, although the contrary is often
stated. The more savage tribes prac-
tically remember nothing more remote
than couple of centuries.
IL Monumental.-Th most famous
monuments ale the stone buildings of
Mexico, lucatan, and Peru. By many
these are assigned an antiquity Of
thousands of years; but calm weighing
OF the testimony places them all we'll
within our era, and most of them within
few centuries of the discovery. The
celebrated remains of Tiahuanuco. in
Peru. are no exception. Much more
ancient are some of the artificial she'll
heaps along the coast. They contain
bones and shells of extinct species, in
intimate connection with stone imple-
ments and pottery. They furnish data
to prove that the land was inhabited
several thousand years ago.
III. Industrial. industrial ac-
tivity of man in America may be traced
by the remains of his weapons, orna-
ments, and tools, made of stone, bone,
and shell. In most of the deposits
examined, specimens of polished stone
and pottery testify to reasonably de-
veloped skill; but in the Trenton
gravels and few other localities gen.
uine palaolithic remains have been
found, putting man in America at a
date coevil with the close of the gla-
cial age, if not earlier. The vast an
tlqulty of the American race is further
proved by the extensive dissemination
of maize and archaeological plants
of Southern Mexico, which were cult
waited from the latitude of Canada to
that of Patagonia.
Nv. Linguistic. is believed that
there are about two hundred radically
different languages in North and South
America. Such confusion of tongues
could only have arisen in hundreds of
centuries. The study of these Ian
guages and of the gradual growth of
their dialects, supplies valuable data
for the ancient history of the continent.
". Physical.-The American race is
as distinctively race by itself as is the
African or white race. Although vary
ing in many points, it has marked
fixedness of ethnic anatomy, and al
ways has had. The oldest American
crania, collected from the most ancient
quaternary deposits, are thoroughly
American in type.
i. vi. Geologic.-As the discovery OF
implements in glacial deposits locates
man on this continent at least at the
close Of the glacial epoch, this carries
his residence here to about IS, 900 years
ago. But there is no likelihood that he
came into being on this continent He
could not have developed from any OF
the known fossil mammilia which dwelt
here. More probably some colonies
first migrated along the preglacial
cambridge, which once connected
Northern America with :, Western
Europe. Later, others came from
Asia. At that time the physical geog-
raphy of the Northern Hemisphere
was widely different from the present.
These various data have as yet been
but imperfectly studied; when they
shall have received the attention they
merit we may confidently calculate on
large increase in our knowledge of
the course of events in ancient America.
Odd TurnOuts.